Summary

Amabelle arrives at the Massacre River, now cordoned with barbed wire separating the two nations. Women wash laundry at the river's edge as soldiers too young to have taken part in the slaughter patrol both sides of the border. Amabelle approaches a young boy she has been told can help her to cross the border without papers. He tells her it can only happen at night. After dark Amabelle is met by a man wearing a bandana over his face. He helps her to hide under a blanket in the back of the black jeep and tells her they know him at the checkpoints and not to worry. Amabelle sees him give money to both sets of border guards and then sleeps as he drives her through the cane country to Alegria.

Amabelle finds Alegria completely changed from how she remembers the town. All the houses are walled...